Marina Bay with Suntec City and National Stadium and Kallang in the background.

3/31/2012

The history of Malaya and Singapore is full of rubbish interpretation

The latest drama of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore was replayed by a school teacher, Malcolm Tan of Chung Cheng High School. He rushed into the class in full Japanese uniform and samurai sword to a stunned class of secondary 2 students. It was a novel and interesting way of teaching history.

This was followed by a letter in the ST forum by Liew Khai Kuin asking for a more balance understanding of the goodness of the Japanese people. He was looking at the good and kind Japanese fallen victims to an act of God, the tsunami and their own nuclear bomb in the name of nuclear energy. He never suffer under the hands of Japanese beasts.

History must be told fairly, and the goodness and badness of war and the barbaric acts of human beasts must be enacted and not erased from the history books. I am not sure if Malcolm told the story of Japanese soldiers cutting sugar canes at an angle and throwing babies into the air to fall back on the sharp end of the sugar canes, like meat on skewers. The meat was live babies. This was recounted by a Filipino soldier in a documentary on the survivors of the Second World War in the Philippines. And the atrocities on women and children in all the countries the good and kind Japanese committed, gorging out unborn babies, were they fiction or unfit to be told?

And the factual accuracy of the heroism of the war was twisted by every side to glorify their own interests. In 1940s, Malaya and Singapore were not countries but colonies of the British Empire. The people did not even know that these were their countries. Can’t blame them. They were stateless, owned the British Empire. And rightly many go on as normal, nothing to defend. Singapore and Malaya were not their countries.

As for citizenships, the locals probably didn’t know what that word meant. For the Indians and Chinese, the Indians were also subjects of the British Empire, the Chinese were Chinese and their country was China, being invaded by the Japanese. It would be foolish for those without a nationality to be defending what was not theirs. At that point in time, Malaya and Singapore belonged to the British. Anyone thinking of claiming the two pieces of land as their own? If they did, why didn’t they take up arms to defend their countries? The fact was that they were in a state of limbo, stateless. Only the migrant Chinese had a country of their own in China.

It is foolish thinking expecting anyone defending British colonies other than the British themselves. But the British scooted, yes scooted, when the Japanese came. And Malaya and Singapore became Japanese territories, conquered land! No owners to defend them. What citizenship? No, Japanese subjects, all the residents became conquered people.

How to write about stories of heroism, nationalism and defending a country when there was no country to talk of and no citizenship or nationalities to be proud of? But historians bungled everything together as if there were an independent state of Malaya and Singapore and nationalities like Malayans and Singaporeans. The state of Malaya only existed in 1957, and Singapore in 1959 as a self ruled state but still under the British rule.

Who was there as citizens of Malaya and Singapore to defend these states? Or why should they be defending the land when they were not even citizens? For the residents of Malaya and Singapore in 1945, what would they be defending, their countries, their nations or the British Empire? The best thing to do is not to defend anything as there was nothing to defend. Many of the locals did that. None of their business. The British got their Empire and colonies to defend but they too chose to scoot. Funny isn’t it?

Today we have a country we called our own. We are Singaporeans and would defend this island as our own. We must not be confused by the fact that there was no country called Singapore and any misgivings about Singaporeans not defending Singapore can only come from a twisted mind. Such distorted perception of history is warped.

34 comments:

As far as I'm concerned the 2 atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki couldn't have come any sooner...and I'm inclined to ask "How come just 2? You guys should have made a few more and walloped Tokyo as well!"

Even in today's more "civilised" wars, with professional, better trained soldiers, we still get atrocities.

However in past conflicts, wars were waged using any motherfucking uneducated and uncivilised male in-bred idiot...what would you expect them to do? Of course they are going to be brutal!

War is the place where human brutality becomes a creative pursuit...like art...performance art, and overtime morphs into a sophisticated form of high-energy entertainment to be appreciated by the discerning few, such as myself. Oh, how I do love the expression of human creativity especially when it is directed to discovering better and more spectacular ways of killing each other.

RB, although generally all in Syonanto suffered, not all of us suffered equally. The Chinese suffered the most, (except for those secret informers who betrayed their own community) simply because they were presumed to be supporters of the Kuomintang and hence enemies of Japan.

The Malays and Indians enjoyed fairer treatment by the Japanese as they had no affinity to the Chinese.

Also, because of the INA's defection to the Nippon Army, Indians were relatively safe.

As for the Malays, the Malay Royalty gave their support to the Jap military administration of Malaya and hence were comparatively better treated.

This much of our history is not nonsense. I know because my parents and I went through that phase of our history.

An important point to consider is that up to this time, the Japs as a nation, are still in denial about the atrocities their imperial army committed in the conquered territorites in s.e. and east asia (China, Manchuria).

Their history books are sanitised completely, and their baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, are totally oblivious to the real facts of their brutalityon the conquered peoples of s.e. Asia.

Sure, we love Sony, Toyota products for their enviable quality. But never forget that such a people can also be capable of unspeakable atrocities against others who happen to fall under their control!

Ditto for the Germans! But at least they have officially acknowledged with an open apology for their crimes against humanity in WW2.

P.S. Although the Jap-penis were brutal in the oppression of the Chinese people, even as a military force they were NO MATCH (not even close) to the murderous insanity and zeal of Mao ZeDong who killed 10's of millions of Chinese...no one actually knows exactly how many.

Power comes from the barrel of a gun...especially if you pull the trigger frequently to show people that you mean business.

The atrocities of the Nippon army was not confined only to the actual theaters of war.They extended to secret centers away from war fronts to conduct experiments of the effects of biological and chemical weapons on human beings. There were many such centers in different cities in China and even in Syonan operated by the Kempeitai led by hardly heard of Japanese Gen.Hiro Ishii.

These centres were operated by a collection of the best scientists, academics, doctors and technicians and others. The estimated number of deaths in these cruel experiments was about 600,000.

But guess what? After the war ended, many of these atrocious criminals, including Gen.Ishii himself, were promised immunity from prosecution for war crimes by the U.S.in exchange for their research works on biological warfare. Some of them were later rewarded with highly prestigious jobs in the new Japanese government and in different industries although they were closely monitored by the U.S.as McArthur did not want other allied powers to have access to these researches.

By 1944, the Japs had already attempted to use the biological weapons in actual battle on different fronts but luckily were somehow thwarted by the allies. It's hard to imagine how many hundreds of thousands more would have suffered long, lingering deaths from the effects of infectious bacteria and noxious chemicals.

////The atrocities of the Nippon army was not confined only to the actual theaters of war.////

There is a need to differentiate finer details of Japanese atrocities, that PAP textbook has been misleading us.

The so call sook-ching by Japanese in my estimate probably cost 5000-10 000 life in Singapore. The duration lasted about a few weeks. To the Japanese military commanders, there is a need to terrorize the locals, into submission, to lessen the burden of political administration.

In my opinion, they succeeded their goals. Despite deploying few gendarmes in Malaya during most of the period of occupation, Malaya did not witness significant insurgencies. The relative peace in Malaya allowed the best combat divisions to be transferred for example to the Myanmmar theatre.

Singaporeans were given false impression that killings occurred throughout the 3 years 8 month. This is false. The Shonan period was once of the most peaceful time in Singapore with very low crime rate, although material well being some how reduced due to war.

After I studied carefully the Japanese occupation, I came to conclusions that important details are missing and while others are distorted, in PAP textbook, so sell us the so call vulnerability.

The main problem with the education system is the use of TEXT BOOKS to impart (so-called) knowledge in order to (so-called) "educate" children -- who are instructed to "shut up and learn" and never to challenge (so-called) "authority".

I agree with Veritas's comments about the so-called "sook ching" period. I'm in my late 60's and my grandparents lost a son, taken away to Changi beach and never seen again. However they insisted that the initial Nippon troops that went house to house searching for China sympathisers were actually Taiwanese in Japanese uniforms, speak Mandarin & Hokkien and commited most of the atrocities against Chinese. A few months after the invasion, the Kempeitai arrived and restored order. Even Japanese soldiers were executed for serious crimes then.Just as Veritas posted, the Shonan period was nearly as normal as life under the British before. Just sharing my little knowledge gained from those who lived through those period.

I hope I have time to write books about the truth of Singapore history. PAP never cease to denigrate the British as coward with some justification.

Zoom down. Who is really the coward? Is British the real coward?

The textbook of PAP give impression that Malayan campaign was fought by British soldiers, which is a big lies. In fact, British soldiers form the smallest minority. Most soldiers here are FT Indian mercenary the Brits recruited from India, in my estimate should be over 40%. The rest are Australian...etc

The FT Indians mercenary in Malaya are the 9th and 11th Division forming the core of 3rd corp. The only effective British units is just 1 Brigade strength --53rd Infantry Brigade.

To justify seizing power against British, peranakan banana denigrate paint the Brits as coward, which are lies.

The real coward is.... you guess yourselves.

FT Indians told British they have brawns and Brits believe in their bullshit. They give the Brits their biggest military defeat in the whole history of Britain.

Today FT Indians come tell PAP they have brains.... haha..

Cowardice-- we can despises. But soon after surrender, most FT Indian mercenary cross over and serve the Japs, under their leader Subhash Chandra Bose.

The clown ex President Nathan recently paid tribute to noxious traitor Chandra Bose despite he did so many injury to Singaporeans.

Fuck traitor Nathan.

Then there are these clowns of Sikh police who stooge the Brits when they are in power, and start rapping the white women during the occupation when they are kept POW.

The Sook Ching operation was not a spontaneous event executed by overzealous victorious Jap troops. It was planned sometime before they landed in Malaya on 8 Dec.41. It was at first aimed at Spore's Chinese population but later extended to Malaya, particularly Penang.

The execution was so successful that the whole population, especially the Chinese, were completely cowed into submission within days of the fall of British surrender. Fear of the Japs were so deep that there were hardly any thieves anywhere. You could keep your front door open 24/7 without fear of ever being robbed. Anyone caught stealing or robbing or carrying out any anti-japanese activities will be summarily decapitated.So the relative peace that prevailed was not because people were happy and contented but was basically due to fear and a broken spirit. You can ask any senior who has survived the regime what they did to heads of criminals. You know the Malaysian Railway? They would hang decapitated heads of criminals on the pillars of the gates to the Railway Station as a deterrent.

This made it convenient for the Japs to divert their best battle hardened divisions to the hottest fronts: Burma against British forces and Phillipines, and other pacific islands from Midway, Saipan, Iwo Jima,etc.against the Americans.

"P.S. Although the Jap-penis were brutal in the oppression of the Chinese people, even as a military force they were NO MATCH (not even close) to the murderous insanity and zeal of Mao ZeDong who killed 10's of millions of Chinese...no one actually knows exactly how many."

Right you are!Some of the cruelest torture methods employed by theChinese in ancient China, were copied by the Japs. One good example used by the Kempeitai in Singapore and other Jap occupied territories was to force victims to keel down on the sharp edges of firewood or rocks for long periods until the Japs heard what they wanted to hear or until the victims passed out.

re////P.S. Although the Jap-penis were brutal in the oppression of the Chinese people, even as a military force they were NO MATCH (not even close) to the murderous insanity and zeal of Mao ZeDong who killed 10's of millions of Chinese...no one actually knows exactly how many////

The Japanese were out to terrorise the resistance particularly the Chinese who were contributing to the anti Japanese war effort against them. It was also their way to control the conquered people and to show them who was mastered.

They were kinder to those who just laid down without resistance and accepted them as the new master.

The revelation by freedom fighters in the Philippines and Indonesia, the only two local citizens that dared to fight back, showed that they were just as cruel to them as they were to the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya that tried to put up some resistance.

When discussing about Singapore or Malaysia during the period of WWII cannot be done in isolation as redbean is right to say that these two nations were not yet born. But the seed of identity was on the way being defined as early as the late 19 century by scholars such as paranakan chinese Dr Lim Boon Keng and company. The final chapter is still being written today perhaps of a nanyang identity. The fact remains that malaysia and singapore shared a heritage of being colonies of Great Britain. Malaysia and Singapore was and is part of a culture and system we inherited and still evolving in our separate way. Part manufactured, part reality, a narrative that binds us, chinese, malays (malaysian and indonesian race), indians, eurasians and minorities from the former crown colonies (eg. burmese, hongkongers, sri langka, etc). Today, the nanyang-singapore-malaya identity is still being written and evolving. The works of our late Kuo Pao Kun and Liu Kang were attempts propelled by their most inner feelings for a people and country they have adopted and come to love. Nationhood have been forged, both Malaysia (1959)and Singapore (1965). We are so young ! Today in the tumultuous sea change of uncertainty especially in the asia pacific, perhaps self-preservation compel us to think more of cooperation and seek the ties that bind us in the local, regional and global polity. ASEAN? Still haven't break yet... thankful. A food for thought that the 5PDA next be evolved and expand in its role post sukarno.

Yes, one obvious way is to consolidate on what we have and what we are and build an identity based on common grounds and share destiny.

Another way is to prostitute everything, bastardise everything and try to be everything and nothing, and pretend that we are citizens of the world, or a hotel with no identity, no share destiny, anyone can come and go.

We can even sell our father and mother to anyone with the money to buy.

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